But besides, the prophecies which he introduces
into his argument are very different from what the prophets actually
foretold of Jesus Christ. For the prophecies do not foretell that
God will be crucified, when they say of Him who should suffer,
“We beheld Him, and He had no form or comeliness; but His form
was dishonoured and marred more than the sons of men; He was a man of
sorrows, and acquainted with grief.”47024702Isa. liii. 2, 3. Observe, then, how distinctly they say
that it was a man who should endure these human sufferings. And
Jesus Himself, who knew perfectly that one who was to die must be a
man, said to His accusers: “But now ye seek to kill Me, a
man that hath spoken unto you the truth which I heard of
God.”47034703John viii. 40. And if in
that man as He appeared among men there was something divine, namely
the only-begotten Son of God, the first-born of all creation, one who
said of Himself, “I am the truth,” “I am the
life,” “I am the door,” “I am the way,”
“I am the living bread which came down from heaven,” of
this Being and His nature we must judge and reason in a way quite
different from that in which we judge of the man who was seen in Jesus
Christ. Accordingly, you will find no Christian, however simple
he may be, and however little versed in critical studies, who would say
that He who died was “the truth,” “the life,”
“the way,” “the living bread which came down from
heaven,” “the resurrection;” for it was He who
appeared to us in the form of the man Jesus, who taught us, saying,
“I am the resurrection.” There is no one amongst us,
I say, so extravagant as to affirm “the Life died,”
“the Resurrection died.” The supposition of Celsus
would have some foundation if we were to say that it had been foretold
by the prophets that death would befall God the Word, the Truth, the
Life, the Resurrection, or any other name which is assumed by the Son
of God.